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LOCATION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:La Merde at Le Bistro Montage (301 SE Morrison St., Portland, OR)
DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:There’s a nifty materiality to David Nielsen’s text-based acrylic paintings. In pieces such as Lorca, the letters are raised in relief against the picture plane, while in others, words are layered manically atop one another to the point of illegibility. Most relate tragicomic or bittersweet personal narratives with droll humor. With their fetishization of alphanumeric characters, these pieces share a lineage with military stencils (think M*A*S*H) and ransom notes. If you’re not interested in the text’s content, chances are you’ll be taken in by the handling of materials, and vice versa. Nielsen is a relatively new arrival on the Portland art scene, but he has a cool bag of tricks. It will be interesting to see how he evolves this conceit in future shows. Through April 2.